Re: describing names

> From: Majken <blueelkgirl@...>
>
> 1. Her name is Mary
> 2. Her name is beautiful
>
> The first sentence tells me her name, while the second
> only describes it. But the only difference is the last
> word. There is no way to be sure that she isn't called
> Beautiful, except that is an unusual name. How do
> other languages solve this problem?
    In Gladilatian every sentence is a copula, but between noun phrases, so
the adjective would have to be nominalized.  The first sentence is:

Fetsnau hfena Emery.

    _Fetsnau_ is "of hers" (more literally "with respect to the sentient
being" (fet+sna+u)), _hfena_ is "name", and _Emery_ is how Gladilatian
mangles "Mary".  The second sentence is:

Fetsnau hfena nru.

    _Nr_ is "beautiful" and _u_ is the nominalizing suffix, so _nru_ is
"beautiful thing".
    "Her name is Beautiful." would be:

Fetsnau hfena Nruop.

    _Op_ turns a common noun into a proper noun, similar to capitalization
in English.  (The capitalization of _Nruop_ is just a feature of the trans-
literation of the Gladilatian into the Roman alphabet; it's not something
marked in Gladilatian glyphs.)
    Similarly, "Her name is Beauty." would be:

Fetsnau hfena Nrotop.

    _Ot_ is the abstractor, turning _nr_, "beautiful", into _nrot_,
"beauty".

    Shameless plug: The adjective _nr_ appears in my novella "A Diamond
Found on Paradise" (http://home.cshore.com/himes/dennis/diamond.htm) in the
passage:

    The next question she understood from the Gladilatian before she read
the translation.  "_Nynr_napu?_", "Are you beautiful?"

    _Nynr_napu_ is informal Gladilatian, and not a complete sentence.  _Ny_
marks the question, and _napu_ is "you".  A more formal way to say this
would be _Napu_nynru_?

 ===========================================================================

                 Dennis Paul Himes    <>    himes@cshore.com
                   http://home.cshore.com/himes/dennis.htm
        Gladilatian page: http://home.cshore.com/himes/glad/lang.htm

Disclaimer: "True, I talk of dreams; which are the children of an idle
brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy; which is as thin of substance as
the air."                      - Romeo & Juliet, Act I Scene iv Verse 96-99